Ralph Fiennes, Jeffrey Wright, and Scarlett Johansson prove there's more than one way to give a great performance in a dry and quirky Wes Anderson film.
If Fiennes and Wright go bigger by adding comedy and emotion to Anderson’s restrictive framework, Johansson ingoes the other way. Her performance is one of even less emotionality than Anderson usually requires. She plays Midge Campbell, a mid-20th century movie star. Yet she’s also Mercedes Ford, the actress playing Midge in the play within the film that constitutes. Perhaps being an actress playing an actress who’s playing another actress made Johansson lean entirely into artificiality.
It’s a performance that’s all about the pose, one where the usual deadpan delivery that Anderson requires comes out almost dead in Johansson’s hands. At the very least she’s always calling attention to the visual presentation of her character rather than the emotional. Of course, Anderson frames her beautifully and she’s styled like an Italian movie star of the 1950s, with black hair and sunglasses. She is Gina Lollobrigida incarnate.
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